In the U.S., we don’t even have the ability to get federal bailout money to the people and businesses that need it. Tens of millions of laid off workers and their families, and many millions of small businesses, are in serious trouble *right now*, and we have no direct method to transfer them money without potentially disastrous delays. A government that collects money from all its citizens and businesses each year has never built a system to distribute money to us when it’s needed most.
Why do we not have these things? Medical equipment and financial conduits involve no rocket science whatsoever. At least therapies and vaccines are hard! Making masks and transferring money are not hard. We could have these things but we chose not to — specifically we chose not to have the mechanisms, the factories, the systems to make these things. We chose not to *build*.
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The article speaks of a complacency. I think that it is more about getting what we incentivize. We (congress and lobbyists) have incentivized short term gain over long term profit and functionality. This can be seen in outsourcing so much of our industry and even research. By setting the tax code up to incentivize quarter by quarter profit, and setting up the bonus structure for executives to focus on those quarterly earnings, we have selected for business strategies that ignore the long term in favor of the short term. This has the effect of moving industry out of the US, and of putting us in a tight spot when something like this coronavirus problem comes along.
ReplyDeleteBut don't worry, as soon as this crisis is over, congress will go right back to incentivizing short term profits over nationalism and the best interests of the country. Gotta make those lobbyists happy to get that re-election money!
Thank all the CEO's that transferred their manufacturing to China and the politicians and Chamber of Commerce pukes that lobbied for and passed laws to enable that to happen.
ReplyDeleteI always ask "If we lose the manufacturing know how in this country, who's going to build our next tank or air craft carrier or submarine."
We are now about to pay the price for all of the stupidity that came as the result of the outsourcing move in the 90's. A lot of us saw this coming, but were ignored. Now its either allow China hold us hostage, bring all manufacturing capability back or war. Pick your poison.
Nemo